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Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Chinese Communist Party Treads Water

China's Eiffel Tower in a town with almost no inhabitants

by Richard MellorAfcme Local 444, retired

The Chinese Communist Party met in Beijng over the past four
days during which it created a new agency to manage what it sees as growing
unrest.There are literally thousands of
protests a year in China over land acquisition by government agencies.There have also been some major successes in
auto as strikes forced wage increases as much as 20% in some cases.Some manufacturers like Foxconn have moved
production to Vietnam where labor power is cheaper.

The CCP hopes the new “State
Security committee” will "effectively
prevent and end social disputes and improve public security", reports
say. "It will set new curbs and
limitations on freedom of speech and thought." Says one activist.

One wonders if these developments are a response to
Snowden’s revelations about the NSA and the US spying on everyone on the
planet, as the new agency will also deal with national security.

During
the four-day meeting, hundreds of what are describe as “petitioners” complaining about all sorts of issues, were detained
by the police including 300 former PLA officers prior to it. “The requisitioning of rural land for
lucrative property deals by cash-hungry local governments also triggers
thousands of ‘mass incidents’ across China every year.
Many result in violent suppression, the detention of the main organizers, and
intense pressure on the local population to comply with the government's
wishes.”Radio Free Asia
reports.

The authorities have responded with massive police presence,
somewhat similar to gatherings of government, World Bank or WTO officials here
in the US and throughout the world. One significant difference would be that
the 1000 protesters gathered outside the Beijing Southern railway station Monday
morning were chanting anti-corruption slogans while singing the Internationale,
the historic anthem of socialists, communists and class conscious workers
throughout the world.

Other issues of concern among millions of Chinese is the "hukou" residency system which
denies migrant workers who move to the urban centers to work benefits like state
health care and education for their
children as it ties these type of benefits to a person’s place of birth.

The environment and pollution is a major issue for millions
of Chinese as is abuse in the workplace. One worker who petitioned the session
about these abuses at a woman’s labor camp and was arrested described her
ordeal:

"I'm in a vehicle
again, but I have no idea where we're going. I haven't been able to take my
shoes off in a week, and my feet have swollen up."

"My health is very poor, and I don't know where we're going, or where
they're going to lock us up this time……"They fed us two steamed buns, some
cabbage, and a small sausage.... I got diarrhea and asked to see a doctor and
asked for some medicine, but they didn't even have that," she said.
"It is terribly cold at night, and I've caught a cold."

Economic issues like industrial overcapacity and housing
prices which doubled in most major cities last month are a problem as well. The
bureaucracy is debating solutions to this problem which include more land
acquisitions in order to meet demand.This in itself seems to be a bit dodgy in that taking collectively owned
land for private use is a major source of the unrest.

On the one hand, China’s ruling clique says that they want
the market to play a greater role in the economy, "They are looking to break away from government control,
allowing the markets to take the lead. In the past, prices and investment
decisions were predominantly made by the government," says one Hong
Kong banker; but the Communist Party also affirms that the dominance of the public sector in the economy would remain.

I am not an expert on the Chinese economy or politics by any
means, but I cannot imagine there not being real explosive movements ahead as
the Chinese working class, hundreds of millions strong bursts on to the world
stage. The bureaucracy cannot maintain what it claims is social stability
forever, repeated protests aside.There
is the working class on one side, the rising Chinese bourgeois on the other and
the parasitic bureaucracy in the middle of it all.